Gush Emunim and the Israeli Settlers of the Occupied Territories: A Social Movement Approach

Settlement of the territories occupied by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War has been the subject of much international controversy and domestic political contention in Israel over the past forty years. The most prominent organization advocating Israeli settlement in the territories has been Gush Emunim the Bloc of the Faithful, originally established in 1974. While Gush Emunims zenith as an actual political group occurred in the mid-seventies, the term is also often used to describe the constellation of like-minded individuals and groups clustered around a specific messianic ideology, which has played an influential role in Israeli politics since 1967. The success of Gush Emunim, as well as its adherents and allies, in pursuing aggressive, religiously motivated settlement in Eretz Israel the Biblical Land of Israel, can be assessed through the application of Social Movement Theory. Although composed primarily of figures along the religious fringe of Israeli society, advocates of settlement have used the political opportunities offered by elite divisions within the Israeli political system. The movements mobilizing structures have included state-funded religious schools, military units, and both formal and informal social networks. Their millenarian ideology has been framed in terms palatable to the broader Israeli public, particularly by relying on nostalgia for pre-state Labor Zionism, as well as arguments which claim that the settlements enhance Israeli security. Skillful exploitation of available political opportunities and mobilizing structures, coupled with clever ideological framing have allowed the movement to implement its program of settlement within the occupied territories in the face of substantial domestic and international opposition.